Monday, February 04, 2008

How London is this? None more London

Finally got around to starting the proof copy of the new Hanif Kureishi novel which Matthew will be pleased about because I nabbed it first and he's been bugging me for ages to give it to him. It's really, really good (is there a better novelist out there at writing about sex? Answers on a postcard please) and I should power through it pretty quickly which is odd for me. But, the thing is it's so London specific, so of a time and a place and a type of people that it's almost provincial and I wonder when reading it how anyone who doesn't know the Goldhawk Road and Shepherds Bush market would engage. But then I quickly realise it's the same as me when I read books so centred in LA or New York or Mumbai. Either the writing and the characters are engaging and interesting or they're not and it doesn't matter what the name of the street is. I'll have to wait until the end of the book though to decide if Kureishi is taking too much for granted.